By James Langton
(April 7 – 13:00 ET) – After a brief spat earlier in the week, it appears that Canadian investors’ love affair with tech stocks is back in full swing. Markets are rallying strongly again today on the back of technology. The TSE 300 is up 161 points to 9,602. Volume is average for these days, at 85.9 million shares, slightly less than 2:1 in favour of buyers. Advancers outnumber decliners by a margin of about 3:2.
Technology, utilities and software have returned to power markets higher. Nortel Networks is back up more than 5% today and that is inspiring confidence in the tech sector generally. Certicom is ahead more than 21%. Research in Motion, 724 Solutions, MDSI Mobile Data, Sierra Wireless and Hummingbird Communications are all up strongly. Cognos is a big gainer too, on stronger-than-expected earnings as well as general tech enthusiasm.
Several groups are down, including golds and financials, but miners are the only real loser today, off almost 4%. Alcan has dropped about 4%, leading the way. Other old-economy warhorses such as Potash Corp., Nova, Ensign, Harris Steel, Bombardier and DaimlerChrysler are also taking a thumping.
Manulife Financial is the hottest trade, up just 5¢ on 6.1 million shares. Among the banks, TD is up while CIBC is down, in active trading. Old-economy energy stocks continue to trade actively with M&A speculation rife.
In New York, the market is positive too, albeit in a light trade. The Dow is up about 50 points to 11,162. Nasdaq is the source of strength there too, however, up 139 points to 4,405. The S&P has added 11 ticks to 1,513.
In the small-cap arena, stocks are up as well. The CDNX has gained 50 points at midday to sit at 4,182. Volume is low at 25 million shares. Technology continues to lead the trade, up 2.4%, with slight gains in mines and energy. Abitibi Mining Corp. is the hottest ticket, down 10% on 1.8 million shares.